


The Three of Us

by catisacat



Series: Yvette and her Boys [2]
Category: Borderlands
Genre: M/M, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-21
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-02 15:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 18,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5252612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catisacat/pseuds/catisacat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yvette makes two new friends, Rhys and Vaughn, who insist they're not boyfriends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Directly related to "Yvette's Pet Project" which is here: ( http://archiveofourown.org/works/5153723 ).
> 
> Originally that one was titled "No Homo" but I thought it'd be a better title for this fic which will be longer. Still in the vein of "Yvette takes photos of her best friends acting gay at each other."
> 
> Although this one is before she starts taking pictures considering she JUST met them.
> 
> \---
> 
> UPDATE: now this one isn't "No Homo" either, I gave it a better name.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yvette hates parties but wants friends.

Yvette stood awkwardly in the corner of the party, holding a red plastic cup of disgusting liquid and staring out at the raucous crowd. She’d never been one of this sort of thing but the only thing she had resembling a friend had invited her. Just a girl in one of her business classes. They’d talked a few times.

Look, she knows she’s not a social butterfly, don’t rub it in.

Her eyes scanned the edges of the party. Maybe she could find someone else who looked equally out of place and uncomfortable and just latch onto them like a little socially awkward lamprey.

Most of the people on the fringes of the party were people who were passed out cold, flung over the couches looking like casualties of war. Not like you can befriend someone who’s unconscious. Frankly, you’d just poison your social status even more by being the weird girl talking to the comatose.

She was about to give up and awkwardly depart when she saw two guys in the corner.

The two boys looked borderline comical next to each other. One was incredibly tall and lanky. He looked comfortable about being here. He was hovering over the other guy and chattering away, looking out at the party.

The second boy was the complete opposite. He was short and crouched over, not unlike a little gargoyle. He couldn’t look less happy to be here and his glasses kept getting nudged by the taller guy’s chest. Man the big one had no sense of personal space.

She continued to stare for a second before deciding to approach them.

At first she’d surmised that the annoyed look on his face was due to some drunk guy sitting all too close to him. However, as she got closer it was obvious they knew each other well.

As she got within earshot she immediately realized she had no idea what to say.

The shorter one was currently complaining about all the math homework he had to get done. Something about not knowing which sections it was supposed to be. He was getting increasingly irritated as the tall one tried to brush it off and change the subject.

Yvette balked, nah this was a too high levelled area, out of her social expertise or lack therefore of. She started to walk past.

She was stopped cold by a surprisingly strong grip on her wrist.

She looked down at the small one grabbing onto her wrist, who was looking significantly less irritated now. Relieved, really. He spoke and she immediately recognized the voice, “Hey Yvette, you’re in my math class. Which sections was it? One through five or one through seven.”

Oh shit, he was right. The guy sat right behind her. Almost never talked, easily forgettable. He knew her name but she couldn’t remember his. Was it Shaun? She wanted to say it was Shaun. She wasn’t about to gamble on that though.

Yvette managed to masterfully twist the awkward silence into feigning thinking about the question, which she thankfully knew the correct answer to, “It was one through eight, actually.”

The guy let go and used that hand to whack his friend in the sternum, “See, bro? I don’t have time for… for this.” He gestured in irritation at the party in general.

He tried to get up to leave but the tall one pulled him back down again. This time her classmate was practically sitting on his lap, one of his short legs was resting over the stilts of his friend. He was now trapped by a long, bony arm wrapped around his shoulders. Were they boyfriends or something? Her classmate certainly seemed much less irritated now that he was being borderline cradled. Hell, he was almost smiling.

“Bro, worry about that later. We’ve been at college for like a month. Live a little!” the tall one insisted, offering up his own drink to share.

The ghost of a smile disappeared as her classmate grumbled and crossed his arms.

“Come on, you’re being rude,” the tall guy jostled him before addressing her directly, “Hey, I’m Rhys. You apparently already know Vaughn. You here with anyone?”

He reached out a hand to her which she shook.

Rhys and Vaughn. Yvette carefully committed the names to memory.

She didn’t know if she’d encounter Rhys ever again but she had that class with Vaughn three times a week.

She looked around before answering his question. Her friendly acquaintance had completely disappeared. Not that Yvette had been talking to her for more than five minutes, “No, not really.”

“Sit with us then,” Rhys chirped. Before she could point out there wasn’t any space due to the sprawled out drunks he grabbed Vaughn’s other leg and pulling him completely onto his lap. He struggled against that for an unconvincingly short period of time before settling down. He was actually smiling now. This must be normal for them.

She sat down in the newly cleared space, finally awkwardly sipping her drink.

Three hours later they were the last group of partiers kicked out. The drunk and disorderly trio managed to make it home at least.

Well. Somewhat home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yvette wakes up in a strange apartment after a night of partying.

Yvette’s head was pounding as she woke up.

She’d never drank that much in her entire life and was feeling nothing but regret.

Her head was swimming until she suddenly jerked to attention. She was face down but still knew this was not her dorm and she had no idea where she was. Honestly? This bed was way too soft and nice to be hers.

She pushed herself up and nearly screamed.

She stifled it so it came out as a high pitched but quiet and strangled noise.

Who the fuck has a life size poster of Handsome Jack in their room? Fuck. Nearly scared her to death. That’s creepy.

Yvette flipped over, sitting on the bed and looking around. The room was immaculate. Who even has the time to keep a room this clean? There was a neatly arranged picture board on one of the walls.

She scooted out of bed and walked over to it. Well, at least she knew whose dorm she was in. It was covered exclusively in pictures of her classmate and his… boyfriend? Best friend? Whoever that Rhys guy was.

“Wow… they’ve known each other for a long time…” she mumbled to herself.

They couldn’t be older than twelve in one of these pictures. For some reason they were both incredibly beat up in it. Smiling, but covered in bruises and cuts.

She made a mental note to ask them about it at some point.

Yvette tried to remember last night. She remembered the first hour or two of conversation with the boys. She looked down. She was still dressed in the same clothes from the party. Although someone had taken off her shoes.

Honestly, waking up alone in a fancy room with all your clothes on is best case scenario for getting blackout drunk with two random guys who are almost complete strangers.

She noticed the glass of water left by the side of the bed and quickly downed it.

Augh. Wasn’t enough.

She slunk out of the room glass in hand in search of more. She was distracted by an open door adjacent to the room she came from. She could hear snoring coming from it. Looking into the dark room she could see the outline of Rhys sprawled out, nearly shoving Vaughn off the small bed. Frankly, it looked like a concerted effort to have the bed all to himself. Otherwise the computer area of the room appeared clean but the rest of the room looked like it had been hit by a tornado.

She silently thanked them for letting her have the clean room with the massive soft bed.

She wandered to the kitchen and consumed like three more glasses of water. Leaning up against the counter she wondered what she was supposed to do in this situation. Disappear into the afternoon sunlight and only ever have awkward conversations with Vaughn in class? Stay and wait for the guys to get up?

Yvette weighed the options and honestly? She wanted friends. She wasn’t leaving.

She snuck back into the room they left her in and pretended to be asleep. That very, very quickly melted into actually being asleep. It was Saturday, anyways. She could sleep as long as she wanted.

She was reawakened about an hour later by the sound of a body hitting the floor followed by men yelling.

Yvette quickly jumped out of the bed and stuck her head out of the room.

Rhys was laughing at Vaughn who was pushing himself off the floor. Apparently he’d finally succeeded in claiming the bed for himself.

“I said I’m sorry,” Rhys protested between laughs.

Vaughn slapped his hands away as he tried to help pull him up, “This is why we don’t ever share a bed, you know that?”

“Hey. Hey I don’t shove you off last time.”

“Oh goody. Rhys: 1, Gravity: 10,000, Vaughn’s spine: 0.”

They didn’t seem to be aware of Yvette watching them as they continued to bicker like an old married couple. She smiled and laughed, it was like having her own personal sitcom.

Both boys jerked to attention at that.

In the light she could see they’d changed into pajamas unlike her. Rhys was in some standard issue Hyperion boxers and a tank top. Vaughn, however, appeared to probably be wearing his boyfriend’s pajamas. The pants were pooled around his feet, they had to be at least half a foot too long for him.

‘Oh my god, you guys should see your faces right now,” Yvette said with a bit of a smirk.

“Well. You should. See your own face?” Rhys retorted weakly.

“Good one, bro,” Vaughn laughed as he was pushed back into the pile of clothes that covered a good fifty percent of the floor.

Yvette put her hands on her hips with a smile, “You two are too cute together.”

They both paused and looked at her, asking in near perfect unison, “What do you mean?”

She was taken aback and continued cautiously, “Uhm? You’re just a cute couple?”

They look at each other before looking back at her. Rhys was the one to finally speak up, “We’re not together. Well, not like what you mean at least. We’ve been best friends since middle school.”

Yvette stood there awkwardly. Good job, self, on the misreading. She stumbled out a jumbled combo explanation/apology, “Sorry I just… you hang all over each other and you had him sitting on your lap for like. Three hours. Also I’m pretty sure Vaughn is wearing your pants right now.”

Vaughn looked down, tugging at them, “All of mine were dirty.”

Rhys shot him a look, “That’s because you never do your laundry. Ever. And it’s fine, Yvette. It’s not like you’re the first person to assume things.”

“Plus it’s not really an insult or anything,” Vaughn said a bit defensively, pushing himself off the ground.

Yvette breathed an unseen sigh of relief. Some people get weird when you insinuate they’re smooching their friends. She was well on her way to having two hundred percent more friends than yesterday and she really didn’t want to jeopardize that.

The boys brushed it off though and were now bickering over if they were going to make pancakes or eggs and bacon.

Yvette leaned against the door until asked to be the tie breaker, “Pancakes, absolutely.”

Vaughn crossed his arm and smiled victoriously as Rhys glared at her.

She just smiled back.

It was nice to have friends.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The origin of Yvette's photographic hobby.
> 
> Also there's thong-chucking and a pizza fight. What more could you want?

A month later Yvette was all but living with them.

It wasn’t intentional on any of the participants’ part but it happened nonetheless.

The invasion started off small. She’d fall asleep after staying too long watching movies or playing games and they’d just relocate her to one of the bedrooms. To her dismay, the luxury of getting Rhys’ room wasn’t a guarantee for guests. Half the time she woke up in the war zone that constitutes Vaughn’s room.

Then they started finding her clothes scattered around. Just shoes at first but it escalated quickly.

The first time one of the boys had found a yellow thong in their bathroom they were almost too embarrassed to tell her they had it. The tenth time Rhys just chucked it at her head when she came in the door.

Yvette rolled her eyes as she pulled her underwear off her face, “10 points, didn’t fall.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking about handling Vaughn not doing his laundry the same way,” Rhys said, miming chucking another ball of clothes.

“Do you want to be picking up his entire wardrobe from the living room?”

“I figure if I keep chucking it at him he’ll give in eventually.”

Yvette put a hand on her hip and gave him a ‘Really?’ look.

Rhys looked down, “Yeah I’ll just be the one stuck cleaning it up…”

Yvette shoved the thong into her pocket before kicking off her shoes. There were exactly five pairs of shoes by the door that were hers surrounding the singular pair of each of the boys, “So what’s for dinner?”

He crossed his arms, “You know you don’t live here right?”

She waved a hand at him which he bapped away. She ignored him as she rolled over the couch and made herself comfy. He leaned over the back as she started channel surfing.

“No seriously Yvette, me and Vaughn have been talking.”

“Ironing out your weddings plans and can’t decide which of you gets me as your Best Man?”

He ignored that. She’d taken to constantly insinuating the two were together. Rhys was starting to think she had an agenda with it and he would absolutely be right. Had he asked, Yvette would have stood by her comment from the first morning that they were the cutest couple.

That morning seemed so far away. They’d bonded hard and fast and despite the issue Rhys was about to bring up.

He looked solemnly down at her, “We want you to start chipping in.”

“For the wedding?”

He clapped a hand to his face. Retaining his composure he continued, “No seriously Yvette. Just for food and stuff. You eat here all the time and frankly, you eat more than both of us combined.”

Rhys and Yvette nearly had a heart attack when Vaughn joined them suddenly, “What’re you guys talking about?”

Yvette regained her composure immediately, “You guys’ wedding.”

They ignored her and her twisted little smile.

“What you and I were talking about last night. You know, her helping pay for food?” Rhys explained while Yvette shot them a completely unrepentant look.

“Oh yeah you seriously eat like twice as much as us.”

“Okay,” she interjected, “New rule: stop saying I eat more than two full grown men.”

“Well stop eating so much then. I saw you eat a whole pizza last week. By yourself. That’s not natural,” Vaughn said with a snort. Yvette was like a bottomless pit. Never gained a pound either.

Granted, he knew why. He’d made an olympic sport out of dodging her at the gym. To the best of his knowledge, she had no clue he worked out and he intended to keep it that way. Last thing he needed was her needling away at him about him ‘looking good for Rhys’ while he was there. And she would. Boy oh boy did he know she would.

The silent standoff was broken by Yvette rolling her eyes and pulling out her wallet, “Augh, okay fine, taking my lunch money like the bullies you are.”

She pulled out a miniscule amount and offered it out to Rhys.

He raised an eyebrow.

She sighed and doubled it.

Vaughn raised an eyebrow.

Yvette groaned loudly and finally pulled an adequate amount out of her purse.

Rhys smiled and nodded, taking it and counting it. He handed it to Vaughn who immediately held it up to the light to check it wasn’t counterfeit.

“Oh my god Vaughn!” Yvette yelled, throwing up her hands, “I didn’t give you fake money do you seriously think I just carry bad bills around?!”

Vaughn gave her a look that said ‘yes, yes I do.’

“I am scandalized, truly insulted, that you think so poorly of me,” she said, putting a hand on her chest.

They ignored her and Yvette realized Rhys was already wrapping up ordering something on the phone. She chirped up in irritation, “Hey don’t I get a say?”

“It’s pizza.”

“I approve.”

Rhys laughed and shook his head, like he couldn’t practically read her mind at this point.

In no time three pizzas were spread across the coffee table. Cheese for Yvette, sausage for Vaughn and some ungodly meat-covered BBQ pizza for Rhys. Not even normal pizza meat just. All types of meat. It was barely even pizza anymore.

“I don’t know how you can even eat that,” Vaughn said, pointing at the mess of Rhys’ pizza.

“Don’t know why you guys won’t,” he responded grossly through a mouthful of it.

Vaughn stuck his tongue out which was immediately met by Rhys shoving a piece right into his face. Missed his mouth though, mostly just got sauce up the side of his face.

“Dude no!” Vaughn protested. It was a weak protest though as he was very obviously trying not to laugh. Rhys made another attempt. And another. And another. Frankly, he obviously wasn’t going to stop until he won.

Yvette leaned back, pulling out her phone. The boys didn’t even seem to notice as she snapped a few pictures. Eventually Vaughn gave in and took a bite. He declared it disgusting and not even pizza.

She looked at the pictures, saving her favorites and deleting the blurry nightmare ones. She snapped one more extra one as Rhys helped Vaughn get the pizza remnants off his face.

“So when are you guys going to finally admit you’re in love? Because these are not pictures of people not in love,” Yvette said, holding up her phone and flipping through the pictures for them. Frankly, anyone outside the group would probably assume it was pictures of a couple too.

Vaughn’s face went bright red and she could have sworn he was smiling before Rhys waved a hand dismissively at her, “You’re always reading into things.”

“You were literally slapping him in the face with your meat. Like some extremely blunt metaphor for your repressed desires. Like. Blunter than a hammer.”

There was a moment of silence before all three of them started cracking up.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys and Vaughn tell Yvette how they met.
> 
> Also she lives here now.

A few short months later they made it official: Yvette was now their legitimate roommate.

She stood proudly at the window in her new room, looking out at Pandora in the distance. Her previous dorm was on the opposite side of Helios, facing the moon. Pandora was a much better view.

She'd taken over Vaughn’s room. They'd excavated the nightmare and he was just going to stay in Rhys’ room from now on.

Vaughn was genuinely excited by that concept but Rhys want crazy about having to share his room with a packrat. When Yvette poked her head into the room Rhys was taking a rule sheet onto the picture board. Vaughn was griping about it.

“I'm an adult, Rhys. I know how to clean up after myself.”

“History says otherwise.”

Vaughn opened his mouth to object but closed it again knowing anything else he could say would be an absolute lie.

She sauntered in like she owned the place, leaning over to look at the list, “What, doing some strict teacher-student roleplaying here? Kinky.”

Her comment was ignored as Rhys answered, “Just some ground rules. You know. So everything doesn't ends up on said ground.”

Vaughn didn't care about the rules and neither did she.

She flicked her eyes up to that picture she'd seen the first morning here. The bloodied little boys looking happy as can be.

She pointed at it, “I've always wanted to ask, what's up with this picture? Why are you two so beat up in it?”

Rhys blushed, scratching the back of his neck but Vaughn excitedly bounced off the bed and carefully grabbed the picture. He sat back down next to his tall friend, patting the seat next to him.

Yvette obliged.

Vaughn had a wide smile on his face as he started, “We took this picture eight years ago. The day we first met and he saved me.”

Rhys face went even redder as he protested loudly and at length that it wasn't a rescue but Yvette was already enthralled. She was looking back and forth between them with evident glee.

“Shut up, close enough. I count it as a rescue.”

“You still got beat up!”

“For beat up less.”

Yvette interrupted them, “Yes, no, whatever. Details!”

Vaughn smiled and continued, “Shockingly I haven't always been this paragon of popularity. I mean, two whole friends? Unprecedented.

I used to get beat up a lot. It didn't really get that bad until middle school though. Early bloomer, my parents were convinced I was going to tower over people like my dad. Abruptly stopped growing in sixth grade. So by middle school I was just short, fat and easy pickings.

Oh and awkward. Did I somehow not mention the awkward? Really, really, really awkward.

Seriously. No friends. Not even one.”

Yvette said nothing but she could relate. She honestly hadn't admitted to either of them that they were her first ever close friends. While Rhys' insistence that Vaughn should just fake confidence until it became real had fallen on deaf ears to the little nerd, Yvette had been listening.

“Honestly Rhys could probably tell the rest better than me. I was kinda cowering while it went on.”

Rhys didn't look enthusiastic about it but continued nonetheless, “I wasn't a popular kid either. Different reasons. You know when there's this scrawny little kid that won't stop talking for five seconds and you just want to slap a hand over their mouth and tell them to shut up? Yeah that was me.

I was just walking to class when some jerk hits all my books out of my hands. Standard bully shit, you know?

Whatever, dude kicks a book into a nearby hallway. I chase after it but before I can pick it up I just hear yelling. Look up and there's like three guys kicking the hell out of someone curled up on the ground.

Bravado beat out brains that day. I just bolted down the hall and tried to tackle one of the guys.”

Yvette finally spoke up, “Kicked the baddies’ asses, saved the princess and rode off into the sunset?”

Rhys laughed, “Hell no. I was like five feet tall, eighty pounds soaking wet. It was like a kitten trying to fight a train. They beat the absolute crap out of me.”

Vaughn chirped up, “Me too. Eventually they lost interest and left us in the hallway, bloody and bruised. Rhys just rolls over, calm as can be, and introduces himself. Just completely ignores the fact he's got a massive nosebleed.”

It alternated back to Rhys talking, “We didn't even go to class all day. The auditorium was abandoned so we just hid in the projector room. Talked for hours and hours.”

Vaughn cut in, “Mostly Rhys talking. But I was just so happy that someone was acknowledging my presence without punching me.”

“And we've been best friends ever since. See? No heroics, just two dudes getting beat up together,” Rhys asserted, crossing his arms.

Yvette looked absolutely smug and mischievous none the less, “Nah. Total heroics. You gotta give him a hero kiss now.”

She placed a hand on the back of Rhys' head and pulled him as close to Vaughn's face as she could. Which was working surprisingly well, Rhys wasn't terribly strong.

Yvette squealed in delight as Vaughn planted a kiss on Rhys' cheek.

Both of their faces were bright red and it only increased her grip as she crushed them into a group hug. She hissed nearly directly into their ears, “Now when's the wedding?” absolutely awash with mirth.

Eventually Vaughn managed to push apart the group hug, “Come on Yvette. Just a joke kiss. Calm down.”

Yvette let out a long, annoyed noise. 

“Nooo it cooounts,” she whined as she flung herself back onto the bed.

Rhys started pushing her off the bed, still red faced, “Okay. Bedtime story over. Go to bed, Yvette.”

There was one last, prolonged whine of protest as she flopped onto the ground and walked back to her own room.

As the door closed behind her Rhys smacked Vaughn lightly on the back of his head, “Don't kiss me in front of Yvette. You're only going to make her more insufferable.”

“Oh, so only kiss you when Yvette isn't around?” Vaughn answered dryly with a bit of a smirk.

Rhys laughed, resting his head on Vaughn's, “Of course. She can never know about our love.”

They both laughed the events of the night off and got ready for bed.

However, both of them ended up wondering if the other had really only been joking.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vaughn has a big test coming, Rhys helps him get to sleep.
> 
> Yvette is regretfully passed out for the entire thing. She would be so mad.

Yvette had let up on Rhys and Vaughn the past month although she'd certainly continued to grow her picture collection during this trying time.

“Trying time” meaning “what kind of sadistic teacher makes the final fifty percent of the grade?”

Vaughn was the only one in that class, thankfully. Every other final was something ridiculously easy. Rumor was the other teachers had heard about the crazy fifty percent final and had let up.

Vaughn was a wreck though. No amount of “you can just retake the class" could calm him down. Rhys and Yvette had basically become his personal servants. Mostly out of worry of how little he was eating and sleeping the past two weeks.

Yvette wasn't saying it right now but they were acting more like a couple than ever.

Frankly, it was killing her not to say anything.

Rhys spent more time with his arm around Vaughn than not. It made Yvette happy how common it became for her to walk out in the middle of the night to find Vaughn smushed against Rhys’ chest while staring vacantly at his study guide.

She teased them about their behavior, oh yeah, but she honestly thought they'd be happy together. And she wanted that for them.

She was asleep right now though. The boys sure weren’t though, despite Rhys’ best efforts.

It was the night before the final.

“Bro. If you don’t sleep you’re not going to make it TO the test, let alone pass it,” Rhys reprimanded, trying to pry the math book out of Vaughn’s hands. Which wasn’t really working, his best friend was significantly stronger than him.

“Wow, I feel so much better,” Vaughn snapped, jerking the book away. A nasty scowl was on his face as he started flipping through the book to find his place.

He looked up after a moment of tense silence at Rhys.

Vaughn immediately felt bad about his outburst. His best friend’s ability to look like a kicked puppy was flawless. And right now he looked more than kicked. He looked like a puppy that had been left out in the rain for a week. All sad brown eyes, looking down and wringing his hands.

Vaughn forced himself to calm down before apologizing, “Sorry…”

Rhys mumbled something under his breath.

Vaughn sighed and closed the math book, setting it on the coffee table. Rhys looked up, looking slightly less hurt.

“You’re not going to stop giving me that face until you get me into bed are you?”

Rhys laughed as he mimed Yvette’s hair with his hand over his eye and did a poor imitation of her voice, “Finally! Carry him across the threshold and ravish him to consummate the marriage!”

They both started laughing. Vaughn’s was a little strangled from stress but it was the closest he’d been to happy in these two weeks. There was a noise from Yvette’s room and they tried to shush each other. She had tests tomorrow as well. Didn’t need her to be sleep deprived too.

Rhys sobered up again, “Okay but seriously, dude. Bedtime. Now.”

Vaughn shook his head and tried to reach for his math book again. He glared again as a bony hand reached out and smacked his away. Rhys wasn’t phased by the anger this time though.

“Don’t make me use drastic measures,” he said, crossing his arms and glaring down at his friend.

Vaughn raised an eyebrow.

Rhys abruptly shoved himself up off the couch and grabbed him. Before he could even protest he was hoisted up off the couch, bridal style. Vaughn would fight it more but he was too tired. He let his head lean against his best friend, unable to hide the fact he was smiling.

Rhys noticed.

He was quickly distracted though as he only made it a few feet before nearly dropping him.

“Oh my god. How and why are you so heavy?”

He half heartedly shrugged, already starting to drift off.

Rhys struggled the rest of the way but managed to not drop his best friend on the ground. Also didn’t bang his head on the door frame, he was quite proud of that fact. Did crush him a bit though when dumping him unceremoniously on the bed.

Vaughn grumbled as he removed Rhys’ elbow from his gut, “Ow.”

“Sorry,” Rhys grumbled, managing to make it to his side of the bed before collapsing.

He flipped off the lights and plunged the room into pitch blackness. Then there was a long, long silence. Long enough that Vaughn assumed he was alone in his consciousness.

Suddenly Rhys’s voice broke the silence, “You know, according to my mockery of Yvette, I’m supposed to ravish you now.”

“Oh I know. I’m waiting with bated breath for it.”

He jumped a little as Rhys suddenly put a hand over his face, “There? Are you seduced?”

Vaughn laughed and grabbed his wrist, moving his hand off his face and unto his shoulder, “Oh absolutely. Now I’m never going to be able to get to sleep tonight. Well. The second part is definitely completely true.”

“The other is only partially true? Should I try harder?”

“Wow Yvette, when did you get up? You should really get to bed.”

Rhys slipped back into his poor mockery of her voice, “You should really get to bedding Rhys, me-ow!”

“Okay since when does Yvette say meow?”

“Since… I’m not an actor,” his voice going back to normal.

“I’m seriously not going to be able to get to sleep though,” Vaughn said, trying to ignore the fact that Rhys was still gripping his shoulder.

This became impossible as he felt his thumb rub against his collarbone and Rhys spoke, “You wanna cuddle? Might help calm you down. You know. Human contact and junk.”

There was a beat of silence as Vaughn tried to puzzle out if Rhys was still joking.

He wasn’t joking and immediately realized that maybe he should have. Especially considering how his friend was tensed up right now. He stopped moving his thumb and shortly after felt Vaughn pull away, swinging his legs off the bed.

Rhys immediately panicked and jerked up but failed to produce any words. Should he apologize? Try to say it was a joke? He couldn’t see his best friend’s face in the darkness.

He did recognize the clunk of the door being locked though.

A few seconds later he felt Vaughn climb back into bed, closer than before, “She’ll assume the most extreme with the door locked but you know she’s not above taking a picture of us sleeping.”

Rhys felt a hand in the middle of his chest as he was pushed back down. He hoped his friend hadn’t noticed his heart beating like a hummingbird but he’d really given him a scare.

Vaughn had noticed, of course, but ignored it as he nuzzled into Rhys’ boney rib cage. Mostly because he wasn’t sure why it was happening but was sincerely hoping it was the same reason his own heart was racing.

It worked though, Vaughn calmed down and was out cold in only a few minutes.

Rhys was awake for a while longer though, idly wondering if he could suggest this as a more… permanent arrangement.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yvette confronts Vaughn about the locked door while Rhys is out.

A week after the final passed Vaughn was still angry about the results.

Oh, he passed, don’t worry about that. Everyone did. The whole test had consisted of extremely easy math problems. Like 1+1=2.

The teacher was howling with laughter at the stunned looks on his students’ faces.

When Vaughn had stomped in looking like he was ready to murder someone Rhys and Yvette had immediately trapped him in the middle of a hug. He tried to explain why he was angry but was drowned out by the fact his face was smushed between their chests and their own attempts at comforting him were much louder.

He finally managed to push them apart long enough to tell them what happened.

Unlike him, they thought it was hilarious. They even high fived over his head. That’s teacher’s prank was genius. Not only had he fooled his own students but the other teachers. They were already discussing how to thank him for subsequently making every other final a breeze.

Vaughn just stood in the crossfire, glaring back and forth at them.

Eventually they relented and Rhys pulled him into a one-armed hug, gesturing with the other, “Oh come on Vaughn, you’re still getting a crazy good grade in your class.”

He only grumbled more.

Now, a week later, he was still griping about it.

“Oh come on, Vaughn. Yeah you lost two weeks of your life to studying for nothing. But, uh, you know. Whatever happened behind that locked door must have been worth it right?” Yvette said, leaning over the back of the couch and looming over him, looking delighted.

That fact of course hadn’t gone over her head. She’d woken up long before them for her own early final and wanted to make sure he’d slept at all. She’d nearly woken them up with her excited squeals as the door refused to open.

“Nothing happened,” Vaughn insisted but his red face certainly didn’t deter her.

“‘Nothing’ never happens behind locked doors or else they wouldn’t be locked,” she said, leaning further over him, “So? What did you do?”

The silence was deafening in the otherwise empty dorm room. Rhys had left a while ago to go pick up some Truxican food from the commons area of Helios. Until then, the small man was trapped by his friend’s increasingly aggressive interrogation.

She stayed silent for a moment, staring down at him intently with a wide and unceasing smile.

“You know, silence only makes me assume you did things. Dirty, dirty things.”

“Everything makes you assume we did dirty things.”

“Because it’s as inevitable as the heat death of the universe?” Yvette said, rolling over and sliding backwards onto the couch next to him.

There was another long silence while Vaughn doggedly refused to look at her. He knew what he’d see. A shit-eating grin and an eyebrow wiggle. He was surprised when her felt a hand on his arm and looked down to see otherwise. She looked almost compassionate.

“You know I just want you two to be happy, right?”

He didn’t answer but patted her hand, somewhat appreciative of that.

She continued as if determined to smash that sentimentality on the ground, “So, are you a top or a bottom?”

“Yvette!” he yelped, smacking her on the shoulder.

She groaned and tried to push him, “Ow-uh! No slapping! You hit too hard!”

“You’re a pervert. A huge, creepy, pervert.”

“I meant that, you know.”

“I’m not- I am not dignifying that with an answer!”

Yvette shoved him again, “No not that. About you two being happy.”

He went back to being silent, staring intently at the wall behind the television.

“I see how you look at him, Vaughn.”

Now he was silent and also looked extremely uncomfortable.

She reached up, grabbing his chin and making him look at her, “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Yvette’s nosy and has no concept of minding her own business. But I also know my shoving is the only way anything is ever going to happen.”

A few awkward minutes of eye contact later he finally spoke up, “Does… does he look at me too?”

“Irrelevant in his case, Rhys never looks at anything longer than two seconds. He’s like a twitchy little animal. Granted that’s probably all the coffee he drinks, we really should get him off that stuff before his heart gives out.”

She realized she’d gotten off topic when he was still staring at her intensely.

“He does care about you though, as oblivious as you are.”

He opened his mouth to claim otherwise but knew it was probably true, “Elaborate?”

“He’s a touchy guy but he’s even more touchy with you,” Yvette understated. Rhys spent more time in physical contact with Vaughn than not. He was prone to hanging all over people but his best friend was definitely his favorite thing to drape himself on.

He broke eye contact again as he tried to force down a smile.

“Sooo… the locked door…” she continued, tapping her fingers on his leg as if warning him that she’d never give up that fight for that answer.

“We… were cuddling. He suggested it because I couldn’t sleep, said it might help calm me down. It did, I don’t think I’ve ever slept that well in my entire life.”

He was avoiding eye contact but you can’t ignore squealing and being shaked, “I knew it! I knew it!!”

“It didn’t go beyond that we’re not… please don’t say I said this okay? It’s a delicate situation.”

Yvette flung one of her legs over the side of the couch, leaving the other hanging over the back, so she could rest her head on Vaughn’s leg, “Of course I’m not going to say anything. Not when what I’ve teased you two about is so close. I’m not going to jeopardize the mission.”

“You’re insufferable.”

They both shut up abruptly as they heard the door click open and Rhys returned with two massive bagfuls of tacos and burritos, “Good news! We’re not going to die of starvation tonight.”

Following the clue of Yvette’s leg dangling over the back of the couch he dumped the bags on the coffee table, looking down at the two of them trying to not look sneaky. They were doing surprisingly well.

“Sooo… it it group cuddle pile day or something?” Rhys said, gesturing to Yvette’s head resting on Vaughn’s leg.

Yvette nodded, “Oh absolutely. Now come stick your head right between Vaughn’s le- ow! I said no hitting!”

It was too late though, you can’t un-smack someone upside the head.

Before she could make any more lewd remarks she felt Rhys collapse on the couch, putting his head on Vaughn’s other leg and unwrapping a burrito, “Dig in guys, I didn’t walk all the way to the restaurant for nothing.”

One shitty comedy movie later they’d consumed as much as they could and waddled to bed. Vaughn’s mood had lightened considerably having had the whole math final ordeal shoved out of his mind.

Plus, he had kept one thing from Yvette.

Shortly after he locked the door Rhys slid into bed, patting his chest just as he had every night since the one before the final. Vaughn smiled as he crawled next to him, more than happy to rest his head over his best friend’s heart.

Both of them were refusing to talk about what this new arrangement meant.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys and Vaughn address the elephant in the room.

A year later things hadn’t changed. At least not to Yvette’s knowledge. She was still their roommate, still trying to goad them into making out, still making her way through college.

They had opted to leave her out of the specifics of what was going on behind that locked door. She’d stopped questioning it after Vaughn told her about the first night. Frankly, nothing new had happened for a very, very long time afterwards.

Nothing up until about two months ago.

After ten and a half months of cuddling one of them finally decided to talk about it.

“What does this mean?” Rhys asked suddenly, addressing the man nearly asleep on his chest.

“Hnng?” Vaughn mumbled, as he tried to discern what was being questioned while not being nearly awake enough to figure it out.

“This,” he continued, gesturing unseen in the darkness at the both of them.

“Bro, I need more than ‘this’. What are you talking about?”

Rhys paused to collect his thoughts. How the hell do you bring up the fact you and your best friend have spent nearly a year snuggling up together almost every single night? Especially considering you haven’t addressed it even a little in all that time.

“The… the snuggling thing,” he finally managed to say. Not eloquent but at least he could shape the rest of this conversation around Vaughn’s reaction.

That response didn’t come for a solid minute. One, long and awkward minute.

“Do you want it to stop? I mean… you’re the one who offers every night,” Vaughn asked finally.

By the way he was tensed up and the tone of his voice Rhys could tell that was the last thing his best friend wanted to happen. He was never good at hiding how he felt about things. Especially not things like this.

Rhys didn’t waste time answering though, “No, I don’t want it to stop. I just… want to know what it means.”

Another long silence. Two minutes this time.

“What do you want it to mean?”

Rhys briefly considered parroting that back in an obnoxious voice but decided otherwise.

Instead there was another long pause, this one nearly encroaching on five minutes. Both of them remained stock still but Vaughn could feel Rhys’ heart beating like a jackhammer. He clung a little as he felt his tall friend finally shift, pushing himself up on an elbow.

He thought Rhys was going to leave for a half panicked second before he was suddenly and painfully headbutted right in the mouth.

“Ow! Dude! What the hell!” Vaughn said, rubbing his now injured lip.

“Sorry! It’s dark and uh, you’re… you’re not as short as I thought,” Rhys said, laughing awkwardly.

Vaughn remained confused for a second, wondering what his height had to do with being headbutted before it hit him what Rhys was trying to do. Not unlike said headbutt. He joined in with the awkward laughing as he felt bony hands trying to figure out where his face was.

The fact they were still dodging actually talking about it as their lips met was truly an impressive feat.

It was a short kiss though, mostly because they were both still laughing.

As Rhys settled back down unto the mattress he felt Vaughn press against him again, except now there were considerably more limbs curled around him. He idly wondered if he’d be able to get up should be need with Vaughn’s legs tangled around his, “So that. That’s what it means. Or at least what I want it to. And you seem to be okay with that. Yeah.”

He just nodded. Rhys couldn’t see in the dark but he was pressing against him hard enough that he could literally feel that he was smiling.

“We… cannot tell Yvette. At least not right now.”

“She’s gonna find out, Rhys. She’s like a creepy gay Sherlock. Figuring out other people’s same sex relationships while hiding all of hers. I’m like 99% sure she’s going out with Cheryl from her business class. Also I’d feel kinda bad not telling her.”

“If she’s bad now just imagine how obnoxious she’ll be if there’s actually something to tease about.”

Vaughn thought back to his conversation with Yvette. It had been a year since then but he still remembered her eking out one genuine statement. I just want you two to be happy.

Rhys sighed, “Okay, okay. We’ll tell her. Can we wait like a month or something though? Just… let it get normal for us first. Then we’ll tell her.”

He felt Vaughn nod against his chest.

Two months later they still hadn’t said anything. She needled away at them as they studied together, thankfully with no threat of a false mega-final. They just kept putting it off.

They’ll tell her eventually.

Right?


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys and Vaughn tell Yvette. Kinda. But they also tell her something else she's really not a fan of.

Two years later they stood in a group of their peers, graduation caps on their heads and Yvette still oblivious to the fact they'd long since gotten together.

They really hadn't meant for it to have gone on this long but at some point “we'll tell her eventually" became “wow she's actually completely oblivious how long can we keep this going without her finding out?”

The answer was, currently, two years and counting.

They did have something else to tell her though, something she wasn't going to be exactly happy about. Something that would be coming up quickly that they really should have brought up sooner.

Now that they were graduating they had two weeks to move out of their dorm. They had already found a new apartment on Helios and put money down on it.

It only had one bedroom.

They'd decided a year ago that after college it was going to go back to the two of them. They'd very quickly grown tired of having to sneak around their own house to spend time alone. Especially considering the high stakes of “it has been way too long and we still haven’t told her, we need to avoid this.”

They had no doubt she'd still be over constantly but at least she won't have her own room.

She would have no problem securing her own place here. As expected, going to college on Helios immediately secured you a Hyperion job there as well. Hell, they'd let her sleep on the couch until she could find a new place.

But as of right now they were standing in the doorway to her room, staring at the back of her head while she packed trying to figure how to break the news to her.

Eventually she felt eyes boring into the back of her head and turned around with a bit of start, “Is there a reason you're both staring at me like that? ‘Cause it's kind of incredibly creepy.”

They looked at each other then back at her. She briefly wondered where they were going to dump her body.

“Uhm… guys?” she said, shifting now and a bit concerned something was wrong.

After a beat of silence Vaughn, smoother than either of his friends would have thought him capable of, ducked out of the room, slammed the door behind him and yelled through it, “You tell her!”

“Et tu, Vaughn?!” Rhys yelled, futilely trying to pull the door open. The little bastard was holding it shut though and noodle arms mcgee wasn’t about to win a tug-of-war against him.

When he turned his head back to Yvette she was standing, looking like she couldn’t tell what facial expression this situation called for. Her brain was rifling through possibilities both positive and negative.

She certainly hoped it was something positive.

After a few awkward seconds of staring blankly at each other she finally asked, “Uhm, what’s going on? Are… are you guys okay?”

She looked genuinely concerned which really threw Rhys off.

“Yeah, we’re fine it’s just… there’s something we need to talk about,” he started before turning and yelling at the door, “ALL of us. As in all three. The three of us. Rhys, VAUGHN and Yvette.”

He jiggled the door handle to no avail again.

Yvette was really starting to look seriously worried, not used to seeing either of them this serious. Rhys sighed and stepped away from the door.

He was going to make Vaughn sleep on the couch for the next month.

“Look Yvette… me and Vaughn have been talking and well… we’ve found the apartment we’ll be moving into. We’ve kind of already put money down.”

She looked mildly irritated which was quickly escalating into actual anger, “Why the hell didn’t you guys let me come help pick it out? It’s my decision too! I don’t mind when you guys do that with little stuff but… shit Rhys, couldn’t you have said something?”

He awkwardly scratched at the back of his head as he dropped the main bomb, “There’s only one bedroom.”

She looked confused, “I don’t want to share a room with you guys, why didn’t you find a bigger one?”

“You’re… you’re not going to be sharing a room with us.”

“Well I sure as hell ain’t sleeping on the couch!” she nearly yelled, starting to approach Rhys with a dark glare in her eye.

“Yvette…”

She sudden stopped a couple feet in front of him, suddenly realizing what he actually meant.

Anger quickly melted into hurt.

“I’m… not going to live with you guys anymore?”

The long pause told her that the answer was a resounding ‘yes.’

“How… how come? Is it because I’m always teasing you guys about how close you are?”

“No, we’d just like to have a little more privacy. Live with less people, you know? College is over, no more dorm life, you know?”

Yvette couldn’t even summon up enough heart to make a joke about the privacy being for banging. She just kept alternating between staring at the carpet and looking up sadly at Rhys. There was a quiet click behind them as Vaughn poked his head in to assess the situation.

“You can still come over like, all the time okay? You’re still our best friend,” he put a hand on her shoulder as he said this.

Instinct made her want to slap it away but she ignored that. She knew that while she was upset now but she wasn’t about to throw away the entire friendship over that. She just continued to look up at him with a look of betrayal.

After a long pause Rhys finally spoke up again, “Uh… you wanna pick what we get for dinner tonight?”

She still looked upset.

“Every night until we move out?”

Still looking upset.

“... okay, fine, how about you don’t have to chip in?”

She perked up.

Rhys rolled his eyes and handed her the tablet with the list of delivery options. She bounced off to the living room with it and he could hear her debating with herself over which to go with.

\---

A few hours later, long after Rhys and Vaughn’d consumed the gross food from some godforsaken planet they’d never heard of, Yvette was feeling better.

As she put away the leftovers which would most assuredly all be hers, to her delight, she deigned to shoot one more slightly dirty look at them, “You know, I’m still a bit irritated you guys waited so long to tell me.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re worse than bandits and should all be strung up,” Rhys said rolling his eyes and grabbing her by the shoulders and steering her towards her room. She was leaning back and trying to resist but she was even more noodly and weak than Rhys, somehow.

She looked over her shoulder at him, still pouting.

He sighed and abruptly stopped supporting her weight, letting her collapse against his chest for a hug. Vaughn awkwardly maneuvered around them in the hallway to make it a group hug. She was still grumping a bit as she was trapped half-crouched in the hug.

“This isn’t an automatic apology accepted,” she whined before the gears in her head started clunking, “Unless you two start makin’ out. I’ll accept that as an apology.”

The boys made eye contact immediately and could each tell that the other was thinking the same thing: “do we tell her now?”

Rhys looked about ready to say something when a suddenly strong jerk on his t-shirt from Vaughn pulled him into a kiss right next to Yvette’s head. She immediately started clapping her hands like a seal and laughing, “Alright, this time you’re not allowed to call this one a joke kiss!”

They stopped so Vaughn could talk in the most sarcastic tone available to him, “Oh no, dead serious. We’re already planning the wedding. You’re gonna be my Best Man… er, Lady.”

She rolled her eyes, squirming out of the hug and walking to her room with an exaggerated yawn, “You two are gonna be the death of me, I swear. If you guys start hookin’ up at your new place you better tell me. Night!”

As her door shut they looked at each other again.

“Well. Technically we’ve told her now. It’s on her that she didn’t believe us.”

Rhys crossed his arms.

“What?”

“I haven’t forgotten what you did earlier, Judas. Making me tell Yvette she’s not coming with us alone. You’re sleeping on the couch tonight.”

Vaughn just smiled mischievously, grabbing Rhys by the front of his shirt and pulling him towards their bedroom, “How about I go make it up to you instead?”

Rhys was only putting up any resistance out of pride as he let himself be dragged in there, “I’m still angry with you.”

His tone was less than convincing.

“Well, come take that anger out on me,” he said with a wink, kicking the door shut behind them.

“You… are into some freaky shit, bro.”

If they had one thing to be grateful for, it’s that Yvette always passes out immediately and could sleep through the apocalypse.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys makes a choice that neither of his friends are terribly comfortable with.

Vaughn had tried to talk him out of it for an entire year but Rhys had made up his mind.

“It’ll help us get ahead, Vaughn,” he insisted.

Vaughn was currently clinging to Rhys’s left hand like it was going to disappear and if his boyfriend went through with his plan it actually WAS going to disappear. The papers explaining the procedure were spread across their bed like a hurricane had hit them.

But Vaughn’s fear about a cybernetic arm was nothing compared to the fear of him getting an eye ripped out and replaced with an ECHO eye.

And that? That was dwarfed by his even more intense fear of having his boyfriend get a big hole drilled into his skull so they can shove a metal port and god knows what else in there. Into his actual brain.

Rhys was currently examining the blueprints for the arm he wanted. Vaughn cringed at the word ‘experimental’ written at the top. His boyfriend had insisted the only experimental part was the hacking technology built in, not the arm itself.

Vaughn pressed his face into Rhys’s right shoulder.

“It’ll be fine,” he insisted, moving to the lanky arm to wrap around his best friend’s sloped shoulders.

Vaughn only held up a papers on the skull implant and pointed solemnly at the parts mentioning memory loss and brain damage.

Rhys took it from him and placed it on the bedside table, “There’s like a 0.0001% chance of that happening, Vaughn.”

There were thunking noises in the other room as they heard their front door being unlocked and a familiar set of heels clicking on the tile.

Oh yeah, of course Yvette had been given a key to their apartment in the year they’d been living there. Frankly, it was that or they’d have to deal with the horrors of getting up and letting her in every other day. They had required her to call or be called first before coming over though.

There was a pair of clunks as they heard her take off her shoes and raise her voice, “Jeez Vaughn, what’s the emergency?”

Rhys shot him a look. He hadn’t planned to tell Yvette anything until there was a date set for the surgeries. Vaughn just turned his head to stare at the wall instead.

Yvette walked in on the tense scene but was undeterred from cracking a joke, “Wow, are the wedding plans going so badly you needed to call me in? What’re you disagreeing on? What color your bridesmaids are gonna wear?”

She sobered up when she picked up a piece of paper off the bed. It was detailing in fairly graphic terms how the eye replacement surgery goes and what the complications could be.

She looked over at Vaughn who looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. A pang of worry immediately hit her as she looked over to Rhys, who was trying to act calm in the face of both his best friends acting like he was already dead.

“Rhys…” Yvette started.

He cut her off, “I’m getting them some time next month.”

She sat on the edge of the bed, joining Vaughn in staring at the wall.

\---

Vaughn had fallen asleep on the side of the hospital bed.

He’d eventually relented on harassing Rhys about getting the implants, as much as he hated the whole idea. Mostly because he didn’t want to be on bad terms in case… well he didn’t want to think about the worst case scenario.

Especially since he was still waiting to see the results.

When he woke up Rhys was still out cold. They told him it’d still be a while until he woke up. He examined his boyfriend’s current state. He couldn’t see the port or eye since they were covered by bandages but he could see the robot arm.

He begrudgingly admittedly to himself that it looked badass as hell.

He wished Yvette could have come too. It had been enough of a struggle to get them to allow him in since they weren’t married. Eventually he’d managed to squirm in on the basis they’d lived together for around five years.

He drifted back off to sleep shortly.

He woke up a few hours later, feeling something cold and unfamiliar combing weakly through his hair.

“Told you… it’d be fine….. Vaughn…”

\---

The doctors had eventually let Yvette in, after several hours of her pacing around the sitting room and asking if could every five minutes.

Both boys had remained asleep as she crept into the room.

Seeing Rhys not-dead was enough incentive for Yvette to sneak over with her phone and snap a few pictures of the scene, quietly cooing to herself.

Vaughn was resting his head against the side of Rhys’s leg. His new metal hand was very carefully entangled in the other’s short dark brown hair. Her favorite detail was the fact they were holding hands over Rhys’s lap though.

She wasted no time sending all the pictures to the boys labelled ‘no homo.’

They’d get that later though, she carefully snuck over and gently shook Vaughn awake, “Hey, has he been awake yet?”

He grumbled a little before answering, “Yeah he was up for a while earlier.”

“So I take it he can remember who you are?” she said, tapping the metal hand on his head, “Or has he forgotten everything and you’ve convinced him you’re newlyweds and desperately in love? Granted, that’s not much of a reach for you two.”

He laughed, “Oh definitely the second. We’ll be leaving for the honeymoon as soon as he can get up and moving again.”

“But seriously… does he… sound good?”

“Yeah, he’s doing fine as far as we can tell. They have his eye covered so he hasn’t checked that yet but the arm works and his brain isn’t scrambled. He says the arm is weird to control, the doctors said it’ll eventually feel as normal as his natural arm though. Said it’s partially the weight of it.”

She looked uncertainly at her passed out friend. He didn’t look like he was in much pain but the IV drip stuck in his left arm gave her a feeling that he was on some pretty heavy painkillers.

“... you wanna draw dicks on his face?” Yvette said, face breaking into a smile now knowing Rhys wasn’t about to keel over dead.

Vaughn laughed and shook his head, “No, no, they’ll kick me out.”

“Oh and you want to stay by his side and nurse him back to health to gain his love?”

“He damn well better love me. He’s going to be on some pretty heavy medication for like two weeks. I’m going to have to take care of him. He got medical leave and well… he kinda had to hack into my work account to get me those weeks off too.”

She smiled widely, saying in a sing-song voice, “You’d do anything for him, wouldn’t you?”

He gave her a look that said he would.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys is all drugged up and his best friends are messing with him.

The next two weeks were hell for Rhys but frankly, absolutely the most fun for Vaughn and Yvette. Even though they were both concerned.

The doctor had prescribed some pretty hard painkillers to Rhys. Turns out he wasn’t capable of mind-over-mattering the agonizing pain that comes with getting your arm cut off, your eye ripped out and a hole drilled into your skull. Who woulda thunk?

Vaughn had been primarily the one tasked with taking care of him. While he’d been looking forward to his vacation but turns out that his boyfriend required significantly more care than he’d thought he would have.

Despite it being difficult, Vaughn very quickly found the humor in it. He’d started taking videos nearly the entire time as Rhys babbled on senselessly.

Yvette had laughed the first time she caught him doing that, “Are you trying to take my job?”

“What?” Vaughn said, looking up from taking a video of Rhys pathetically trying to use his robotic arm to eat his dinner.

The food was barely making it halfway up to his mouth to his immense frustration and his boyfriend’s sadistic amusement. He mumbled something completely incoherent in agitation. The groggy haze which he’d spent the last few days in was his own personal nightmare.

Vaughn wasn’t entirely heartless, though. After a few more failed attempts he finally took the fork from Rhys and helped him.

Yvette immediately held up her phone and snapped a picture, “See? My job.”

Vaughn rolled his eyes as she took several more of him trying to help Rhys eat, “You’re insufferable. It’s been years, how long are you going to keep up this hobby?”

Yvette shrugged, captioning the picture ‘no homo’ as always and sending it.

Vaughn ignored his phone going off and just gave her a look.

“Oh come on, it’s cute,” she protested, getting a better angle. It was. Right now through his heavily drugged up state Rhys was looking at Vaughn like he was his hero and the best person in the world.

Vaughn took one look at Rhys’s face and tried to disagree. He couldn’t.

“See? Yvette said as she switched to ‘video’ and started recording, “Hey Rhysie, how you feeling?”

Rhys grumbled in response, “What do you think?”

“Ohhh nearly sleeping beauty speaks. How you feeling about Vaughn right now though?”

Yvette suppressed a squeal as he managed to mumble out “I love Vaughn soooo much that-” before the short man could clap a hand over his mouth. He complacently tilted his head back, nearly falling asleep in the process.

“Don’t take advantage of him, he forgot his own name a few hours ago,” Vaughn said, carefully tilting Rhys’s head back down to a natural angle.

Yvette stopped the recording, making sure to save it, “You were recording him failing to eat like two seconds ago, you massive hypocrite. Yesterday you sent me a video of you convincing him he was going to get to be the next Hyperion CEO now because they only let people with two different colored eyes get that position. He started calling himself ‘Handsome Rhys’ and everything.”

“That’s… that’s different,” Vaughn protested weakly.

“How so?”

“Because I said so, that’s why. Isn’t that right Rhys?”

Rhys complacently mumbled something in agreement as he started slowly leaning on Vaughn.

Yvette raised her hand, yelling off to the side at a fictional judge, “Objection your honor! Vaughn is leading the witness?”

“What’d I witness?” Rhys slurrily asked, starting to crush Vaughn under the newfound weight of his metal arm. He sounded mildly concerned, mostly because somewhere in his addled mind he was wondering how he got into a courtroom.

“Vaughn’s crimes! His vile crimes of hypocrisy and being a douchebag. The judge is unsympathetic, looks like he’s going to have a life sentence in asshole jail,” Yvette said theatrically, pointing at the accused accusingly.

Vaughn rolled his eyes but Rhys took it dead serious. He looked from her to Vaughn, looking as terrified as his drugged up state would allow.

“V-Vaughn? What did… what did you do?” he said, confused by the charges.

Vaughn rolled his eyes, landing on Yvette with an icy cold blue glare, “Come on, tell him I’m not going to jail before he freaks out.”

Yvette smiled. Vaughn groaned. She wasn’t going to stop.

“Oh just horrible things, Rhys. Vaughn is an evil mastermind. You’re only ever going to see him through an inch of dirty, disgusting glass when you go and visit him in asshole jail. Talking through a shitty phone in the wall. Pressing your hands up against the glass, pretending you can feel his touch once more. But no, just alone forever.”

Vaughn gave her a look that was half angry, half betrayal as Rhys really started to freak out.

He was too disorientated for proper sentences, all his best friends could gather was snippets of sentences as he immediately collapsed in on Vaughn and started crying.

While being crushed by his boyfriend, Vaughn managed to maintain irritated and intense eye contact with Yvette who was very quickly starting to regret her decisions. She’d underestimated how out of it Rhys was.

She carefully reached out a manicured hand, rubbing Rhys’s back, “Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay. It’s okay there, big guy. I lied, Vaughn’s not going to asshole jail.”

He peeked out at her from his vantage point of ‘shoved into Vaughn’s chest’, his new blue eye lazily examining her face for signs of lying.

“I mean it, he’s okay, I’m sorry,” Yvette muttered. She felt better as she felt Rhys relax but laughed as she realized he’d just fallen asleep, “Oh my god, from one hundred to out like a light. Has he been passing out like this?”

Already putting the ordeal out of his mind Vaughn answered, “Yeah, he nearly crushed he when he decided to fall asleep walking down the hallway to bed.”

“Oh ho ho, to bed you say?”

“Shove it, Yvette. I’m not going to take advantage of him like this, “ Vaughn said, maybe a little more defensively than he should have. Rhys had certainly been coming on strong in his heavily disoriented state. Mostly because it was drastically uninhibiting him, less guarded about appearance. Vaughn had turned him down though, of course.

“Shush, I just meant for hugs and junk. Like the one you’re currently trapped in.”

“Yeah, about that. Give me a hand getting him off of me, I kinda can’t feel my arms and his new arm is like a freaking vice,” he said, trying to push Rhys off.

Yvette laughed and helped pull at the metal arm trapping him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yvette doesn't like how Hyperion is changing her friends or herself.

Yvette wasn’t sure how she felt about how being truly Hyperion was changing her friends. In the past few years she’d watched them go from starry eyed college students to ruthless corporate ladder climbers.

Rhys’s mechanical enhancements were only the start. Frankly, if anything, they’d probably made it worse. It was like Rhys had to prove to himself, or possibly Vaughn and herself, that they’d been worth it.

Yvette still didn’t like the whole concept unlike Vaughn who had grown significantly more okay with the idea of Rhys being part machine. She could have marked his change of mind on the calendar if she’d cared to. As soon as it became obvious Rhys was in fine health and there were obviously no complications from the surgeries Vaughn had immediately accepted the whole thing.

Although they never neglected to include her in their attempts at rising to power she didn’t know how to feel about that. On one hand, she really didn’t like watching them use others as stepping stools. Not to mention her quiet, unacknowledged fear that one day they’d use her as one.

On the other hand, they were floating in space above a planet where instead of a rise of power being based on figurative backstabbing it would be based on literally stabbing people in the back. Or probably more realistically, face bazooka...ing. They were better than that at least.

She still didn’t like watching it happen though. Even though she could feel it changing herself, she didn’t want it to change them. Her first friends. Her best friends.

She’s kept up with her photography hobby over the years but as the boys got more serious about their jobs they started reacting less and less to her teasing. They’d check their messages and she’d be lucky if she even got a slightly annoyed look.

It got worse as Rhys found a focal point of his corporate rage: Hugo Vasquez.

The one thing he didn’t know about his new rival was that Yvette already knew him.

He was the pinnacle of backstabbing Hyperion jackassery that she was desperately worried her best friends would turn into.

She’d even gotten to watch his rise to dickery. On accident, mostly. Her college classes had been a little more hands-on than Rhys or Vaughn’s. She had already decided she wanted to work in requisitions. While she wasn't one to build or design equipment she kinda thought it was neat to be around them.

Several of her classes had involved doing small jobs around the warehouses and mailrooms of the official, business part of the space station.

Yvette had met him there.

She’d been tasked with taking a broken laptop to the mailroom to be shipped to another part of the ship for repairs. It was pretty normal for them to pass off shitty little tasks like that to student helpers.

She sighed as she carried the bust electronic to the mailroom. She always seemed to get saddled with this. Maybe she needed to stop looking so eager all the time. Work on a good old fashioned bitch face.

Yvette was so lost in thought that she almost walked right into the tall man in front of her.

It was a good thing she jerked to attention and skittered away.

She didn’t want to die that day.

In a mixture of fear and awe she ducked behind a shelf full of massive bags of mail. The man hadn’t even realized she was there.

She was more than happy with that as his mismatched eyes scanned the room.

He zeroed in some poor schmuck with a bad hairpiece.

Yvette flinched from her hiding spot as Handsome Jack grabbed the man’s shoulder and whirled him around before delivering a shattering punch right to his jaw.

She ducked further behind the shelf for a second, closing her eyes. She was far enough from the two that she couldn’t make out what was being said and found herself oddly grateful for that. She obviously knew that Jack was a scary man but knowing and seeing were two entirely different things.

She eventually peeked back around the edge and watched as the man scrambled to pull out a stack of important looking letters. Jack ripped them out of his hands without so much as a second look at him.

She stuck her head out further to watch and make sure Jack was gone before she left her hiding space.

Yvette jumped as the other man tapped her on the shoulder, asking her if she needed the laptop she was currently clutching maybe just a little too tightly shipped somewhere.

She looked up at him. He didn’t look to be a terribly old guy, she’d say early thirties. Must already be pretty bald based on the horrible toupee he was sporting. Despite the fact he’d just been punched in the face by the CEO of the company he was working for he looked… well, he looked proud of himself.

She didn’t question it, holding out the laptop for him, “Yeah there’s something wrong with the programming but not the actual device. I need it sent up to the techies then back to the stockboys in the fifth warehouse.”

He just nodded, almost smiling as he took the device from her and started wrapping it up in a box to be sent through the pneumatic shoot.

She could have left but she found herself taking a step forward instead and extending her hand, “Hey, uh, I’m Yvette.”

She wasn’t entirely sure why she was introducing herself to a lowly worker bee but it was happening nonetheless. Part of her rationalised it as ‘you never know who will end up in power’ but it was far more likely to be pity. A dangerous emotion to feel on Helios.

He stopped for a second, giving her a limp and ineffectual handshake with a smile and an obviously practiced line, “Hugo Vasquez, at your service.”

He went right back to working but his smile didn’t falter. She couldn’t help but notice that Jack had actually chipped one of his front teeth with that punch.

“Are you… okay?” Yvette asked carefully, “He uh… Jack broke your tooth. Just a little bit.”

Hugo nodded as he walked over and put the carefully packaged laptop into the right chute, “Yeah, that’s just… a back and forth thing with me and Jack you know? He comes to get his mail, punches me in the face it’s… it’s all in good fun. Do you need anything else?”

Yvette shook her head and waved good bye. He returned that before disappearing into one of the backrooms. Call her crazy but she could have sworn she saw some money sticking out from under his hairpiece.

And now? All these years later his name bubbled up again on the lips of her best friend. Rhys was complaining that ‘this Hugo Vasquez guy’ was getting in the way of his promotion.

She was right about one thing back then: you never know who will end up in power.

It wasn’t long before Rhys was driving himself up a wall over the guy.

Every time she found herself in the same room as “Assquez” there was a weird, unspoken fact between them.

She remembered him and he remembered her but neither of them was acknowledging it.

A good old fashioned Truxican standoff.

He could shatter her friendships by pretending they were old buddies.

She could destroy his image easily by bringing up his past.

They chose to ignore each other until Rhys… until stupid, stupid Rhys decided that he wanted to try to steal Vasquez’s vault key deal.

Yvette knew it was pointless to try to talk them out of it. When Rhys sunk his teeth into something he wasn’t going to let go and Vaughn would always do whatever Rhys wanted him to. He’d follow him anywhere.

They were too far gone.

She helped them get to Pandora, sent them a loaderbot, did everything she could.

But they were too far gone.

When a coldly familiar tapping on her shoulder brought her out of her thoughts she knew it was over.

She turned around to the familiar face of Hugo Vasquez leering down at her with hatred in his eyes. She knew the loathing wasn’t for her though.

Yvette knew she was going to say yes long before he extended a hand to her.

It brought her no pleasure to reach out and have her hand be crushed in a bone crunching handshake with Vasquez.

She felt immediate regret. For everything.

As the smarmy man walked away Yvette could feel her eyes stinging.

She held up her phone and looked at her last picture.

Rhys had insisted on taking Vasquez’s car because of course he did. He was leaning against it victoriously with Vaughn practically hanging off his arm.

Both of them were smiling, completely assured that this would work.

If Yvette had known this would be her last picture of them on Helios she would have gotten herself in the shot too.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys and Vaughn somehow manage to find another female friend to narrate this, proving one and for all that I don't know how to not focus on cute girls.

Fiona hadn’t known what to make of these weird Hyperion douchebags at first.

Now, while she still wouldn’t necessarily say she trusted them, she’d certainly caught them in a moment of humanity.

Their group of four had split u. The short one named Vaughn had come with her and the gangly one named Rhys had gone with her sister. She herself wasn’t terribly worried. Sasha knew how to handle herself. Her little sister was made of sugar and spice and everything deadly.

The tiny accountant, on the other hand, seemed to be having a heart attack every five seconds. The cause seemed to be divided pretty evenly between fear for his own life and not knowing where his friend was.

Well, Fiona was pretty damned sure they weren’t just friends.

Either way she had to admit she felt just a little bit bad for him. This “Vaughn” guy was obviously not someone made for Pandoran living. He was small and scared and probably hadn’t spent much time outside his safe little cubicle.

Not to mention the fact it seemed like his tall boyfriend was the protective one. She'd seen firsthand that if something starts going down Rhys automatically puts himself between the threat and Vaughn.

Granted, she thought that guy was just as unsuited to this planet. Maybe even less so with his fancy pants and hoity toity attitude. Not to mention the fact he looked like a stiff breeze could topple him.

Also he’s a massive asshole.

Not the regular old Pandoran type either.

Just the epitome of Hyperion douchefuckery.

Fiona at least found Vaughn mildly endearing. He wasn’t boastful and obviously didn’t think he was better than everyone like a certain cyborg. Any semblance of the standard issue Hyperion smugness evaporated from him the second he wasn’t by his boyfriend. Also he’d surprisingly held his own in the death race.

Their group had still been separated when Felix met his end.

Fiona immediately regretted her decision as she watched the man who raised her die in that explosion.

As she felt a tear roll down her cheek a surprisingly strong hand gripped her shoulder and she looked down at the sympathetic face of Vaughn. He didn’t say anything. She let him lead her back out towards the now nearly empty stadium.

She was using all of her brain power not to think about Felix.

But figured she must have been right about the boyfriend thing though because Vaughn was glaring a hole in the mysterious vault hunter’s helmet while Rhys was fanboying over how cool they are.

It didn’t last long and certainly didn’t deter him from running to Rhys and crushing his midsection in a vicegrip hug.

Fiona smirked. Definitely boyfriends.

Sasha didn’t pay any attention to the boys’ reunion, mostly because she was marvelling at the sheer destruction left behind. Fiona did, though.

She watched as they remained close to each other, relaying what had happened to each other. They were either uncaring or unaware that she was listening in.

“What happened to the money?” Rhys asked quietly. She was unimpressed but unsurprised that that was his first question.

Vaughn shuffled awkwardly, rubbing the wrist the suitcase had been hanging from before answering, “It uh… it blew up. I’m sorry.”

“Did you get hurt?” he asked abruptly.

“No, I’m not okay. I just watched ten million dollars that we weren’t even supposed to have explode!” Vaughn hissed loudly, glaring up at him over his glasses.

Rhys gave an angry shrug, “Well. Look, I don’t know we’ll figure something out. Money’s replaceable. We didn’t lose anything irreplaceable. We’ll figure it out as we go, okay?”

“Ten million dollars is not replaceable, not while we’re stuck here on Pandora. We have no way to get back to Helios and even if we did, in case you didn’t remember, we stole ten million dollars that exploded.”

The little guy was really getting heated up about that money. Fiona couldn’t help but think that he really should have thought it through and maybe not, you know, put a bomb on the money.

“We didn’t lose anything irreplaceable and I. Will. Figure. It. Out. Now are you okay?” Rhys hissed right back. Fiona had heard of Hyperions being snakes but this was downright cartoonish.

“Stop saying irreplaceable, ten million dollars is not replaceable,” Vaughn nearly yelled, gesturing violently at the scraps of money still raining down on them.

Fiona was genuinely surprised at Rhys’s answer, “Look there’s two things I could have lost here today and that’s the money and you. I lost the money, I didn’t lose you. I would rather have you be alive and not have the ten million than have you be dead and have the money. Now will you answer if you got hurt or not?”

Vaughn didn’t answer at first but this time it was because he was looking up at his boyfriend like he was the center of the universe. Fiona guessed that for him, he might as well be.

He eventually shook his head before embarrassedly smacking Rhys in the middle of his chest, “Stooooooppp you're gonna make me blush in front of the Pandorans. I'm fiiiinnnneeee.”

“Well, it's too late, bro. You're already blushing. I'm glad you're okay,” he said said with a smirk, pulling Vaughn against his chest. He didn't fight it but Fiona couldn't hear the rest of their conversation as they started actually whispering now.

All she could see was Vaughn clinging to him while a robotic hand combed through his hair.

Fiona couldn’t help but think what Rhys said was a surprisingly human sentiment for a heartless Hyperion monster. Maybe Rhys wasn’t quite as bad as she was making him out to be.

Oh, still a douchebag to be sure, but maybe not a soulless one.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sisters meet Yvette through a video call.

“Oh my god, you’ve been together for like five years and you haven’t told her?” Fiona mocked, pointing a fork laden with mysterious meat at the two boys.

“Look, it wasn’t on purpose. It just kinda happened. Then kept happening. Then we just hit a point where it’d been too long and it’d just be awkward to tell her,” Rhys said, gesturing at his plate like it had an answer.

“Uh, you do know if you all get on the same planet again she’ll figure it out eventually?” Sasha said with a laugh, this was exactly the kind of sneaky Hyperion bullshit she’d expected and she was loving it.

Rhys hadn’t meant for the sisters to be involved with the call but the caravan wasn’t exactly spacious.

Yvette had initially been shocked to have Rhys’s hand grabbed and pulled away from his face. But as the ECHOnet camera pointed away from him and towards two scruffy looking Pandoran girls she couldn’t help but notice the one in the hat was pretty cute. Either way when she’d been hung up on her poor friend was trying to free his mechanical arm from their curious clutches.

While both were still disdainful of everything yellow and cruel they had to admit that they were also really, really were morbidly curious about what life was like up there.

So far the answer had been “full of lies.”

The girls dropped that strain of questioning, wanting to know more about their new friend.

“How’d you meet her?” Fiona inquired, nudging Vaughn in the side and disrupting his attempts to eat.

“College, she was walking by and well, I just didn’t know what our math homework was,” he answered plainly through a mouthful of food.

Rhys embellished for him, “Yeah someone was busy being grouchy about homework. At a party. Then he grabbed an almost complete stranger to complain at her about said homework. It’s honestly a miracle she didn’t laugh in our faces and refuse to talk to us ever again.”

“Oh come I wasn’t complaining.”

“Look, I’ve only known you for a couple weeks and I can already tell you that you were probably complaining,” Fiona teased. If she’d learned anything about Vaughn since they met it’s that almost everything in the world is at least mildly annoying to him. The sun. The dirt. Being woken up. Going to sleep. Breathing, probably.

He just glared at her. See? Right now he was finding Fiona annoying. Constant discomfort was all this man knew.

Rhys continued, “Anyways, we all got near blackout drunk and she ended up having to come home with us. Vaughn tucked her in and everything. Next day she mistook us for a couple and then it was like a month later when she started taking pictures and sending them to us. Each and every one labeled ‘no homo.’ She was religious about that.”

Sasha laughed, “Oh my god, really?”

In response Vaughn reached into his pocket and held out his phone.

Fiona and Sasha fought over it briefly before the elder sister won. Her little sister squeezed up next to her to try to get a good angle of the screen.

She flipped through a few, giggling. Wow these two were apparently huge saps up on Helios. Half of these looked like they came out of some shitty romcom movie.

“You two are… such dorks, I can’t even believe it. Do you seriously have matching t-shirts for some nerd event? What else matches? Your underwear?” Fiona’s voice got more mirthful as her sentence went on.

Rhys’s hand wasn’t fast enough to stop Vaughn from saying a brief, “Sometimes.”

Both girls laughed and they could have sworn they heard something resembling a strangled snicker come from the gladiator hiding away in the corner.

Heads turned and Athena just hung her head, hiding her face, and quietly resumed eating in her surprisingly daintily manner.

Fiona looked back down at the phone as she reached the end of the picture reel.

She stared down at the final one Yvette had taken.

It was obviously taken right before they left Helios, she recognized the car they were leaning on.

Somewhere in her mind Fiona quietly hoped that it wouldn’t be the last picture their friend would take of them. It must be hard to be separate from their third, especially considering how long they’d known each other.

Fiona had to admit that she kind of wanted to meet the girl herself.

“Sooo… this ‘Yvette’ of yours. Is she, uh, she single?” Fiona said, flipping back to a picture with said woman in the foreground.

Both the boys and her sister groaned at that.

“What?” Fiona said defensively, “She’s cute, alright?”

Sasha let out a curt snort of disapproval, “And exactly how many of your previous relationships have ended well?”

“What, I’ve had a few bad relationships so I have to give up?” the elder sister said with a bit of a puppy dog face.

Vaughn, ever the source of unnecessary yet desired information, answered her question, “No, Yvette’s not dating anyone. Unless something’s changed since we came down here. Which I highly doubt.”

The other two groaned again at her hopeful look.

Fiona ignored them, tossing an arm around the small man’s shoulders, “Well buddy, when all of this is over you wanna be my wingman?”

“Hey, he’s my wingman,” Rhys protested, ignoring the fact this was no longer a relevant position for his boyfriend to occupy.

“Hey, hey, hey, wingmanship ends if you start dating them,” Fiona answered, the arm around Vaughn’s shoulders quickly turning into a headlock. He squirmed to try to regain his freedom as his boyfriend tried grabbing one of his arms and pulling. It only resulted in the conwoman being dragged along too.

Sasha just shook her head at their crappy little wrestling match and looked over her shoulder at Athena like ‘are you seeing this shit?’

She could have sworn she saw Athena smile for half a split second.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yvette thinks she'll never see her best friends again as Helios falls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nearly done, finally! I wasn't sure how much I wanted to do past the end of the game but I think there's a good stopping point coming up in the next chapter.
> 
> I'll most likely do other fics in the same timeline. Hell, I've done followed up finished long fics with a different long fic. Only time will tell.

Yvette had been certain she wouldn’t see her boys ever again.

She wouldn’t pretend it had been easy on her. The day she’d made the deal she’d cried herself to sleep. Truthfully, she had every night since as well.

She certainly hadn’t expected to see Rhys again. Especially not like this.

She supposed she wasn’t actually seeing him, technically. But technicalities didn’t matter when your best friend you left for dead was walking towards you. Even under the digital cloak of the man you sold him out to.

“R-Rhys?” she asked again, uncertainly. She didn’t want to confirm what she already knew but seeing the baton she’d given him in his hand…

He didn’t answer just slowly approached her. She noted fearfully that he was gripping the weapon tighter. She hadn’t been able to keep an eye on them for a while now and before she could stop herself another question pierced the silence.

“Where’s Vaughn?” Yvette asked quietly. She wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to that question either.

For a tense moment she thought he really was going to shock her.

She jumped as the baton hit the floor with a loud clank.

“I don’t know.”

\- - -

As everything went to hell, Yvette found herself crawling away from the cold vortex of space deeply grateful that Rhys was nothing if not loyal.

And incredibly, incredibly forgiving.

And that he has ridiculously long stilts that he calls legs.

As they ran to the escape pods she felt even worse as he let her take the last one.

“I’ll see you down there,I know you’ll figure a way out!” Yvette yelled as the doors closed. He didn’t hear what she said after the doors closed though. About how she was going to make it all up to him.

Despite what she said, she was completely certain this was really going to be the last time she saw him. Alive, at least.

Yvette leaned towards the window so she could look at his forlorn face for as long as she could before the pod shot into space. She really wished her last memory of him wasn’t going to be so horrible.

The ride to Pandora felt long and horrible as she found herself crying into her own knees.

\- - -

When she’d wandered out of her pod she idly wondered if she’d ever see absolutely anyone she knew before alive again.

Not because they’d all be dead but because she’d be dead.

She was glad no one was around to see her cowardly book it as she heard men screaming nonsense approaching.

She dove into a ditch, praying that she couldn’t be seen crouching fearfully behind them.

Yvette didn’t dare pop her head out as she heard the men yelling more and the sound of her pod’s door being forced open again. Sounded like two, maximum. But that was still two more men than she was prepared to fight. Plus the fact they were still screaming about meat and death and their mothers? That was absolutely terrifying.

There was the sound of approaching yelling and the sound of gunfire. She curled up tighter, starting to make peace with whatever deity was out there. Any of them, all of them, she didn’t even know anymore.

Suddenly there was silence again.

Yvette didn’t move though, hoping the two small factions had killed each other.

She discovered she wasn’t that lucky as she could hear two people talking about how the pod was empty. She heard a muffled third voice and could make out the words “fan out” and “find them.”

She weighed her options. Stay here and get captured and killed or possibly worse. Or she could run. The group of three survivors sounded like they were still by the pod. That was a good thirty feet away. That wasn’t a lot but it was at least better than just rolling over and accepting her fate.

With a sudden, aggressive start she launched herself out of the ditch and started bolting into the opposite direction. The unknown was better than the certain in this case.

She knew you’re never supposed to look behind but she did. Two had disappeared behind the rocks on the other side of the pod to search for a survivor but the third was staring at her. A short, mostly shirtless guy in a mask.

Which, frankly, is never a good sign in a scary situation.

All she heard was a unheeded yell of “WAIT!” as she started running even faster and cursing the idiot who had sold her these shoes as ‘sensible heels.’

“Sensible, my well toned ass,” she muttered to herself under her breath as she continued booking it. The sound of the man running after her was sending her into a blind panic. He was yelling something to her but her brain wasn’t exactly in working order right now.

However, the sight of sleeping monsters in front of her caused her to come to a screeching halt.

Turns out working on pure instinct is bad after all.

She contemplated screaming and waking the beasts up as she felt the masked man slam into her back.

Before she could decide if ‘bandit slave’ or ‘skag chow’ was a better fate a hand clamped over her mouth and she found herself being dragged away from the still slumbering animals. She struggled against the man’s grip but shit he was strong and in no time they were back to the pod.

After a few frenzied seconds her brain caught up with the rest of her and she realized the guy was talking to her. Beyond that, she also could recognize the voice. Hell, more than that, she’d heard the voice daily for almost a decade.

“Why did you run?! Didn’t you hear me yelling for you, oh my god, Yvette, we can handle a few stupid psychos not an entire den full of skags!” he babbled, still holding her in a borderline headlock.

She noted his hand was off her mouth now and she managed to choke out a weak, “V-Vaughn?”

“Yes! Duh!” he said before launching right back into chastising her for nearly running right into her death and probably his as well. She finally relaxed and her friend let her stand up on her own.

She stood up, crossing her arms and looking down at him as she tried to pretend she had anything resembling dignity after nearly flinging herself into a skag den, “You’re wearing a mask, I didn’t sit and think ‘wow I wonder if that’s my dear friend Vaughn.’ I thought ‘oh shit there’s a weird crazy Pandoran guy with a mask staring at me like he wants to eat my eyes.’”

Oh right, he was so used to wearing it. He reached up and pulled it off, revealing one of the two faces Yvette was certain she’d never see again. It was his turn to jump as she collapsed in on him and crushed him in an incredibly crouched over hug.

\- - -

The universe was determined to prove her wrong on all points about not seeing Rhys and Vaughn alive ever again.

Not only had Yvette been given one of her best friends back but word was spreading quickly and aggressively through the Helios camp that her second one was alive and well and heading this way.

She tried to look casual but the second the gossiping men had disappeared from the hallway she bolted to the window and looked out.

She could see figures in the distance approaching. Given the deference of the Children gathered around them she could only assume who it was. They’d all really taken an awkward and creepy shine to her spindly best friend since he destroyed the space station.

She decided to handle the situation with a calm grace and retain some of her dignity though.

But it’s really hard to play it cool when you’re running down stairs and tackling someone to the ground in a hug though.

Pretty much impossible, actually.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys and Vaughn finally tell Yvette.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally done after 18k+ words! My longest fic so far, although I think Eighteenth Birthday will overtake it eventually.
> 
> I've got a few oneshots branching off this planned although they'll be posted separately. Just a few missing scenes and maybe something afterwards. We'll see.
> 
> I'm really glad I finished this before the year is out. I hope you all liked it. \o/

Yvette could have kicked Rhys for his short disappearance after opening the vault. She’d been placated by the fact he’s shown up in one piece this time though.

But that had been months ago, life had returned to the weird, new normal again.

Rhys was finally a CEO, granted of a different company than Hyperion but he seemed very happy returning Atlas to its former glory. Like he was making something, not just inheriting it. The Children of Helios had been absorbed into it, thankfully. The fact Vaughn kept them alive in a bandit-magnet like the Helios ruins was a miracle and miracles aren't generally known for their long lasting nature. Rhys had seemed very proud of him for accomplishing it at all though, regardless of duration.

Yvette had originally thought that might be disheartening for Vaughn to not be the leader anymore but he didn’t seem to mind being company Vice President. She’d, of course, made a million cracks about him enjoying being underneath Rhys. Yvette heard it had been a real struggle to get him to start wearing shirts again though. Something about Rhys having to call in Sasha to force him into one. Rumor is she had to chase him down through the hallways of Atlas with a dress shirt.

She’d gotten even more aggressive about the pictures. They weren’t entirely just Rhys and Vaughn being gay at each other anymore though. Frankly, she’d started become uncomfortably aware of how quickly their lives could end.

Not to say she wasn’t still sending them pictures labelled ‘no homo’ but now there were other ones too. It had helped that she now had significantly more friends.

Also, one maybe more than a friend in Fiona who she’d been spending more and more time with. Of course, Rhys and Vaughn weren’t leaving her alone about that. She was well aware it was deserved. However, unlike them, she was taking steps towards actually getting a relationship going. Or at least, she thought she was the only one doing that.

It hadn’t been unusual for the three of them to have dinner alone together from time to time. A little break from the now massive group dinners, littered with the occasional Vault Hunter or two. Or three. Or six. You befriend one, you befriend their whole group apparently.

So she really didn’t think anything of it when she was called up to eat in Rhys’s office with him and Vaughn.

Walking into the room, her heels’ clicking into the office, she could tell something was a little bit off. She couldn’t place it though. As she pulled up one of the plush extra chairs up to Rhys’s desk she looked back and forth between them she spoke, “Soooo why’s everyone looking so serious tonight? I don’t like it when you two get all business on me.”

Vaughn started after a beat of silence, “We… uh, we have something we need to tell you.”

“Last time you guys pulled the whole ‘we need to talk’ thing you were kicking me out of your apartment plans. Not words I really like to hear,” Yvette said, crossing her arms and staring at Rhys as she waited for clarification.

“It’s not bad really, not this time at least. I’ll be a lot harder when I use that line when it’s time to kick you out of the company and also steal your soul in the process,” Rhys said, pretending to focus on the food in front of him.

“Oh ha, ha Rhys. Real funny. Seriously, though, what?” she said, patience quickly gone. He only told bad jokes when he was avoiding talking about something serious. Well, that’s a lie, he tells bad jokes constantly. But especially in that scenario.

The boys looked at each other and then back at her. She wasn’t a big fan of when they did that, it reminded her that she bordered dangerous close to permanent third wheel status. Also it always seemed like they were keeping secrets from her. She knew they were entitled to that but she was a nosy, nosy woman.

She wasn’t very good at prying though, apparently. Considering they even had to have this awkward conversation almost half a decade after their relationship had started. Not to mention they’d been holding hands on top of the table since she came in and she hadn’t even noticed yet.

“Look, Yvette, we… we should have told you a long time ago…” Vaughn tried to start again but ultimately trailed off, face bright red.

Yvette continued to stare obliviously at them.

They were starting to get truly impressed by how unobservant she is.

Eventually though she finally looked down at their hands.

She immediately started bouncing in her seat, squealing and pointing, “OH MY GOD, FINALLY. It only took you guys like… what eight years now?!”

They both shrugged as she swung her long legs over the desk to crush the both of them into a strangle-hug. Trying to escape would be futile so they just hugged back and tried to ignore the fact her shoulders were cutting off their air.

Neither of them were even remotely surprised when she whirled around and crouched between the two of them, holding her phone high over her head. They both smiled for this one though as the familiar noise of its camera sounded.

After a few seconds she finally let go and hopped back to her previous perch, sitting up straight on the desk triumphantly as she rambled on, “So you guys said it’s been a while. Since we all got back together after Helios crashed right? I mean the whole ‘might never see you guys again’ really made me appreciate you losers more. For you guys I can only imagine. Finally saw each other after three months, fell into each other’s arms the second you two were alone? I mean Vaughn’s got the whole beardy manly no-shirty thing going on now, not like you could keep your twink hands off that, right Rhys?”

She was a bit disappointed by their lack of response to that as they just looked at each other then back at her.

She tilted her head, “Not that then? … what before that? Back when Helios was still in the air?”

They nodded and Rhys spoke up, “Yeah uh… it was definitely still up there.”

“Exactly how long have you two been together and not telling me?” she said, narrowing her eyes as they darted back and forth between the two sneaky motherfuckers.

Rhys nudged his boyfriend in the side as he fidgeted, knowing it was his turn to give an awkward answer, “Uhm… you remember how that one time my professor assigned that monster final that turned out to be simple addition and uh, yeah that one?”

Yvette’s jaw dropped, “That was like seven years ago!”

“If it makes you feel better it wasn’t exactly right then when it happened more like… what a year after that?” Rhys said, looking at Vaughn who nodded.

“Oh my god, that was still six years ago...” she muttered staring into space.

“Yeah we… well we were just going to wait until we knew it was going to work out but then it just… started getting awkwardly long,” Rhys started explaining. He knew exactly how ridiculous he sounded but frankly, it was a ridiculous situation.

“Oh and then eventually it was kinda like ‘holy crap how long can we go before she finds out.’ The answer is, apparently, impressively long,” Vaughn laughed, ignoring Rhys hitting him in the arm.

Yvette crossed her arms, she would have been irritated if she wasn’t mildly impressed they pulled this off for so long. They could tell she wasn’t actually angry which was really a huge relief. They’d really been prepared to deal with much worse.

“Sooo… why now then?” she finally asked, “What changed that you suddenly want me to know?”

Rhys reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a fancy white and red card, handing it to her.

Yvette was incapable of keeping her face from cracking into a wide smile as she read over the wedding invitation, “I better have been the first person you’ve told and you two better have fought over who got me as your best man. Best woman. Whatever. I’m talking out-and-out someone’s sleeping on the couch fighting.”

“We figured you were the last to know we were together so yeah, we made you the first to know this,” Rhys said, tapping a metal finger on the edge of the card. They’d also left much of it unplanned so she could go nuts and be a Bridezilla-by-proxy but they’d surprise her with that later.

“And how’d the best man argument go?” she said, trying to squish down how incredibly excited she was. Her heart was going like a little hummingbird though. Yeah they should have told her but damn it, all she’d ever wanted was for them to be happy. While she made innuendos at them. And now both could be happening, her ideal world state.

“Wasn’t much of an argument, it was always kinda hard to tell him no and now it’s impossible,” Rhys said, pointing at Vaughn who looked wholly unrepentant for always getting his way.

Yvette pinched the short man’s cheek, “Aw. You spoil him. That’s adorable. Who’s being your best man then?”

“Fiona, if she says yes. I don’t think she’ll turn it down. Does anyone ever turn down being the best man? Is that even a thing?” Rhys sentence started strong but quickly ended up off topic.

Of course, when he asked Fiona later that night the elder sister said yes immediately. Then threatened an apocalyptic bachelor party and ran off to find her sister. Possibly to plan said party, possibly to gossip. Probably both. He was a little scared to know what Pandorans would consider apocalyptic. Looks like he’d be finding out.

“I’m gonna bang your best woman,” Yvette threatened with a smile.

“Thanks. Thanks for that unnecessary information. Definitely needed to know that.”

Having completely regained her composure the woman flew back into her old teasing, “Oh by the way, speaking of necessary information, I need details. Sordid ones.”

“No, no you don’t,” the CEO said, finally stabbing his fork into the long ignored food sitting next to Yvette’s thigh.

“Oh ho ho. Yes, yes I do. Apparently this was happening under my own roof and I’m now fully aware of why you two didn’t want me in your apartment anymore. I bet you’re noisy and were tired of suppressing your wanton moaning.”

Rhys’s fork screeched on his plate, “Yvette!!”

“He totally is,” Vaughn answered calmly.

“VAUGHN!!” he yelled over the woman’s squeals of delight.

She clapped her hands enthusiastically, “Oh my god, you little pervert. Actually answering. I knew something filthy was ticking away under that stuffy little accountant facade. I bet you’re into some freaky shit.”

Rhys stood up, one hand on each of their backs in a poor attempt to shove them, “Alright, both of you. Out of my office.”

Vaughn was having no issue holding his ground but Yvette’s shoes were starting to slide at the force of a metal arm digging into the back of her ribcage. It did not stop her sass though, “Or what? You’ll spank him?”

Less than halfway to the door Rhys finally gave up pushing his two best friends out of the room, “Oh my god, how are you guys so heavy?”

Yvette ignored the question, smiling at the fact Vaughn had managed to squirm under his boyfriend’s arm. She was smiling, genuinely for once, “I’m happy for you two. Really. Mildly annoyed you didn’t tell me all these years. But that’s really overpowered by the happiness.”

“Sorry we didn’t tell you for… you know, however many years,” Vaughn apologized, face pressed up against Rhys’s bony ribcage.

“Hey, if you guys can forgive me for what I did I can forgive you two bein’ a pair of huge weenies. Speaking of, which of you has the bigger-”

She cackled maniacally as they successfully shoved her out of the room and the door slammed behind her.

In a heartbeat there was a message tone from Rhys’s phone. From Yvette, of course. He opened it unsurprisingly to the picture she’d taken of them earlier. This time there was no ‘no homo’ message attached.

Just a string of little heart emoticons surrounding the words “I love you two idiots.”


End file.
